She shook her head, sweat beading on her face. “I’m okay… Wait, who are they?”
When she noticed us, I approached and smiled even more gently than usual. Then, I told her I was a doctor.
Her eyes widened. “R-Really?”
Lucil started in surprise. “What’d you say?!”
I glanced at Soulgros. If Lucil revealed my lie, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Luckily, she understood and nodded.
“Lucil-dono, this way.” She grabbed the boy and dragged him to a far corner of the room.
“H-Hey, what the hell?!”
Hopefully, she could explain my intentions by the time my work was done. I smiled at Lucika, who was growing steadily more unnerved by my presence, and told her I needed to check her health. The expression on her face as she replied spoke to wisdom beyond her young years.
“I know you’re a good person ’cause Oniichan brought you here, but I don’t think you can help me… He’s brought tons of doctors, but none of them could help.”
Lucil clearly cared about her a great deal, and I became sure he intended to ask me about her. Clearly, though, Lucika herself had all but given up, and I told her I’d have to fix that.
“Really?”
I lied a little more about what a great doctor I was, but when I assured her that I could help, she just smiled amusedly, her eyes informing me that she’d already lost all hope. Clearly, only tangible results would convince her.
From behind me, Lucil let out an irritated sigh. “Look, I don’t care what this weird lady said. Can you really do anything?”
“Watch your tongue!” Soulgros snapped, completely forgetting her thee’s, thine’s, and thou’s in her anger.
I was patient in assuring him she would be fine, then turned back to Lucika and asked her if I could take a closer look.
She nodded, then clamped her eyes shut and swallowed hard. “Please do.”
I rested a hand on her crimson hair, letting the flow of mana through her body tell me how she was doing. The strength of her curse came through even more potently than before, as well as how deeply it was hurting her.
I feared as much.
I began to pour my mana inside her, careful to dilute it to the point where she wouldn’t go into shock.
Lucika gasped almost immediately, looking up at me with wide eyes, and I could hear Lucil’s chair clatter to the ground as he stood up.
“Lucika?! Hey, what the hell’re you doing?!”
He started toward me, but Soulgros cut him off. Any trace of kindness was gone from her eyes, replaced by frosty malice. That was enough to stop him, and I used the opportunity to assure him I wouldn’t harm a hair on her head.
“It’s okay, Oniichan. Something about the way the doctor’s touching me is making me feel a lot better.”
Lucil shot her a confused look. He must have noticed that her sweating was beginning to subside, and she wasn’t quite as pale now. “Lucika?”
“Thank you, Mr. Doctor,” she breathed.
She fell asleep a few moments later, finally unperturbed by the curse. My mana was doing its part to suppress her pain.
“I haven’t seen her sleep this well in ages,” Lucil muttered, clasping his sister’s hand tightly. “So, what, are you actually a doctor or something?”
I shook my head, assuring him that I was nothing more than a common adventurer.
“Though he doth possess powers far outstripping any ordinary wanderer,” Soulgros added boastfully, though I didn’t understand why she had to be quite so proud about it.
More importantly, I took the time to explain to Lucil what I’d done to help her. It was as simple as channeling my mana within her.
He blinked. “Seriously? And just like that, she’s all better? None of the other doctors did that… Did those assholes lie to me?!”
He realized a moment later that we were still at Lucika’s bedside, however, and clamped a hand over his mouth. It was heartening to see him care for his sister so deeply, but that was all the more reason we shouldn’t continue the conversation at her bedside. I suggested we continue our conversation outside.
“Yeah… Yeah, let’s do that.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The three of us returned to the guild commons, where the other three men awaited us, gathered around a beaten-up—er—old table. Once there, I confirmed that channeling mana into Lucika’s body was all it took to alleviate her pain.
“But you can’t cure her?” Lucil asked.
I shook my head. That was beyond my abilities—if I tried to give her enough mana to cancel out the curse altogether, it would be too much for her weakened body to bear. One of the other Yerkchira members might be able to pull it off, or there was a chance Anat had means of dispelling the affliction altogether, but she was busy elsewhere. Calling her here wasn’t an option.
Lucil slumped dejectedly in his chair. “Oh.”
“Still, I didn’t think you’d be able to numb her curse,” Apollo added. “As the guildmaster, allow me to thank you for your efforts.”
I shook my head, politely declining. I wasn’t able to cure her, after all, though her pain shouldn’t return for a while yet.
“Thanks,” Lucil finally said with an awkward bow of his head.
More importantly, I asked them why they were so desperate to enlist Soulgros’s and my help in the first place—though by this point, I was fairly sure of what they wanted to ask me.
“Yeah… We have a quest for you,” Apollo said.
“How rude!” Soulgros bristled beside me, but I ignored her. I frankly didn’t care and shot her a chastising look as she reached for a kunai.
Apollo nodded. “You see, we need you to retrieve a medicine that can cure any wound and dispel even the most fatal of illnesses. In the old legends, it’s referred to by one name alone—the Elixir.”